Week 2: Assignment 05/15/2017

HIS 206: United States History II

Instructor Guidance

Week 2

Welcome to the second week! This week we will be looking at the Progressive Era and a new era of overseas imperialism. Your first assignment is also due this week! Please read the instructions carefully and be sure to look at Section 4.3 of you textbook “Analyzing Primary Source.” Last week you were asked to choose a group for your Final Project. As we work through the class, please keep the group that you chose in mind and be thinking about the events that you’d like to use for your Final Project.

This week we are looking at a lot of interesting history, and you will have a chance to try your hand at analysis in the assignment that is due on Day 7. Please read the instructions very carefully, as well as the section in this guidance about analysis, and contact me if you have any questions.

This week’s guidance will cover the following areas:

1. What is Analysis?

2. Checklist and Assignments for Week 2

3. Topics covered this week

4. Source list

What is Analysis?

Video Transcript

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Checklist and Assignments for Week 2

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Topics Covered This Week

Timeline

US Imperialism

One of the results of the Industrial Revolution in Europe was that industrialized countries now needed raw materials for their industries. (England did not grow cotton, or tea!) and markets for their manufactured goods. This led to what is often called a wave of “New Imperialism” in which England France and other Europeans countries colonized almost all of Africa, India and South East Asia. It is important to understand the difference between Imperialism and colonialism.

Briefly:

Imperialism – is the political and economic domination of another country. Building an empire with or without control of country.

Colonialism is one extension of Imperialism when the country is taken over and controlled. An example of this is most of Africa and India.

The United States prefers Imperialism – remember it WAS a British Colony before American Revolution of 1775-1783. So it rarely practiced direct colonialism when the entire government is controlled by a foreign power.

Imperialism radically changed the subject lands, destroying their indigenous social, political, economic, and cultural structures, making not only difficult to win their independence but also to govern after independence.

Watch this short video on European imperialism in Africa

(2004)“European Imperialism in Africa.” Discovery Communications. Silver Spring, MD. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJe1W_HIWmA

Although Americans dominated all of the land between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, Manifest Destiny was not dead. Instead, attention turned to American expansion in Latin America, Asia and the Pacific. Imperialism was underpinned by a belief in the “white man’s burden” to civilize less developed cultures. However, opposition to imperialism existed in the United States and vocally denounced it on a variety of grounds.

Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “White Man’s Burden,” published in 1899 demonstrates how imperialism was connected to ideas about race. It communicates the belief that non-whites were not civilized and were not capable of ruling themselves and that white men had a responsibility to take control over African and Asian nations in the interest of the native peoples. You can read it here:

Kipling, R. (1899). "The White Man's Burden" Retrieved October 20, 2014, from http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5478/

See this list of Interventions in Latin America. http://www.yachana.org/teaching//resources/interventions.html

Keep in mind that the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 would ensure that the US would be very involved in the region and want to make sure that its enforced security for the canal.

As we have seen racial lines were strongly drawn in the US and these ideas would be carried into the newly occupied lands.

To see what life was like during the building of the Panama Canal see this very interesting photo exhibit with captions.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/photo-gallery/panama-gallery/

The Progressive Movement

Jane Addams Collection. (1900). “Children Playing in Hull House, ca. 1900”. Swarthmore College. Retrieved from http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/peace/Exhibits/janeaddams/hullhouse.htm

Although the Progressive movement was a more middle class (and less raucous) movement than Populism, it took over advocating for the poor and, as such, took a distinctly paternalistic attitude toward the poor. They believed that many social ills could be eradicated by providing education and healthy work and living conditions. They also believed that if Americans really knew about social problems like poverty, they would be immediately take action. The Progressive movement advocated reforms throughout society, including an 8 hour work day, social health reform, and housing reform as well as the breakup of monopolies and Prohibition. Progressivism was a movement rather than a party, with adherents belonging to both the Democratic and Republican parties. Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson all won election to the presidency as Progressives.

Learn more about the Progressive movement here

http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/pwwmh/prog.htm

The Progressives believed that systematic reform would improve life for everyone. They believed that if only immigrants were taught a better way of life, they would not continue to live in squalor and poverty. It was through settlement house, the most famous of which was Hull House, led by Jane Addams, that Progressive women attempted to improve the lives of the poor by providing child care and they taught English and the latest in housekeeping, childrearing, and nutrition.

It was the first political party to support women’s suffrage (right to vote). They believed that poverty, illness and early death (for both children and women) could be significantly reduced in Americans had access to birth control and information about reproduction. Disseminating information about reproduction and birth control was banned at the time by the Mann Act because it was viewed as obscene. Eugenics, the belief that physically and mentally inferior people should not be allowed to have children in order to improve the overall health of the human race, was also commonly supported by Progressives, even to the point of supporting forced sterilization. Most associated with access to birth control, eugenics, and even free love during this period is Margaret Sanger.

Learn more about women in the Progressive Era here

United States. National Park Service. (n.d.). Women and The Progressive Era. Retrieved October 20, 2014, from http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/pwwmh/prog.htm

Watch a video on Margaret Sanger, a Progressive and early advocate of access to birth control here

RCC History. (2010). “Margaret Sanger.” Richland Community College. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i_sEWh9u-4

World War One

World War One, also known as the Great War and the War to end all Wars, began in June 1914 with the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, in Sarajevo, Serbia. The Austro-Hungarians immediately moved to attack Serbia, which prompted Russia to mobilize its troops in defense of Serbia. Because of the complex and often secret mutual defense pacts between nations, a number of other nations (see table below) joined the conflict. Because of the number of nations involved and the amount of geographical area on which they fought, it was truly the first global war.

Although Wilson wished for the United States to remain neutral and he campaigned on a promise to keep the United States out of the war, it did pick favorites by only selling weapons and providing material support to the Allies. In 1915, German u-boats (submarines) sunk the Lusitania, a British steamship, carrying both civilians (and secretly) weapons destined for Britain. The attack killed 124 Americans who were on board, causing a huge outcry in the United States.

In addition, the British intercepted the Zimmerman Telegram and turned it over to the United States in January 1917. The Zimmerman Telegram was a communiqué from Germany to Mexico in which the German government offered its backing to Mexico if the Mexico would enter the war and attack the United States from the south. The contents of the telegram was published by newspapers all over the United States, creating hostile feeling toward Mexico and pushing the United States closer to war. A significant amount of propaganda was disseminated during the war, creating an atmosphere that was particularly hostile to those of German descent and that demonized anyone who questioned the US involvement in the war.

New technologies played a major role in making World War I one of the bloodiest wars in history. Chemical weapons, tanks, machine guns, airplane delivered bombs were first used in World War I and they changed the nature of modern warfare. In addition, the battles in World War I were characterized by trench warfare. Essentially, soldiers dug trenches in which they lived, fought, and died for months and years. This created a stalemate in which each battle was simply a matter of fighting over a few feet of land. Hygiene was obviously an issue in trench warfare but so was the fact that the soldiers were stuck in the trenches for so long without a respite.

The entrance of the United States into the war brought an infusion of both soldiers, food, and weapons that tipped the balance in the favor of the Allies. The United States declared war in April 1917 and just a little more than a year later, November 1918, the war ended with an armistice. The United States emerged from WWI as a world power.

The treaty that ended the war, the Treaty of Versailles, remains controversial. It attempted to reconcile the desires of the Big Four (the United States, Britain, France, and Russia). It forced Germany to accept blame for the war and to agree to pay massive reparations, which is often pointed to a major cause of World War II. In addition, the Ottoman Empire was divided up between France and Britain, leaving Turkey (which became a republic) a The borders of these Mandates were drawn according to the will of the Allied nations, without reference to traditional borders or ethnic territories.

Watch this short video on the Treaty of Versailles

History is Happening. (2008). Paris Peace Conference. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShRA8HRMR4Q

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Sources

Barnes, L. & Bowles, M. (2014). The American story: Perspectives and encounters from 1877. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Sinclair, U. (1906). Chapter nine. In The Jungle. Retrieved from http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5727/

The progressive era. In R. Hawksworth (Executive producer), America in the 20th Century. Retrieved from https://secure.films.com/OnDemandEmbed.aspx?Token=36215&aid=18596&Plt=FOD&loid=0&w=640&h=480&ref=

Wood, S. (Writer & Producer). (2010). To conquer or redeem [Series episode]. In G. Lucas (Executive producer), Manifest Destiny. Retrieved from https://secure.films.com/OnDemandEmbed.aspx?Token=51868&aid=18596&Plt=FOD&loid=0&w=640&h=480&ref=

Zecker, R. M. (2009). “Let each reader judge”: Lynching, race, and immigrant newspapers. Journal of American Ethnic History, 29(1), 31-66. Retrieved from the http://www.press.uillinois.edu/journals/jaeh.html

Bauer, C. (Writer). (1990). Upton Sinclair: The jungle [Video file]. Retrieved from https://secure.films.com/OnDemandEmbed.aspx?Token=11747&aid=18596&Plt=FOD&loid=0&w=640&h=480&ref=

Chicago Historical Society. (2001). The stockyards [Virtual exhibit]. Retrieved from http://ww